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New Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST ultralight full carbon, tubeless-ready wheelset

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim
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Mavic has combined two of their highest end features into one all-new wheelset that’s ready for pro-level racing. Which is one reason why they’re starting with a rim brake version of the Cosmic Ultimate UST, a full carbon wheel that’s tubeless ready and based on the UST design standard. While the pros might still be racing the grand tours on tubulars, they’re often training on regular tires. And more and more often, those are tubeless, which is proving to offer lower rolling resistance in test after test. All of which is to say that you, as a non-pro, can now get a wheelset and tire combo that’s arguably better than what the pros are racing on.

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

 

The new Cosmic Ultimate UST wheels introduce a couple of firsts for Mavic. They’re the first to get a full carbon rear hub shell and full length, rim-to-rim carbon spokes on both sides of the wheel. They’re also the first to get a new, heavily machined freehub body with lighter bearings. The result is a 1,310g full carbon wheelset that’s tubeless ready out of the box, no rim tape needed.

Creating a one-piece UST carbon wheel

 

mavic cosmic ultimate UST carbon rim cutaway

The wheels use a Monobloc structure that’s light and stiff because everything is made into a single piece. There are no holes in the rim (other than for the valve stem), which makes it stiffer and stronger. The carbon clincher tech developed for their Cosmic Pro Carbon release in 2016 carries over here. That means the interior rim bed and bead hooks are fully molded, not machined, so fibers remain intact and run all the way around the top of the bead from side to side. This, too, improves strength, and gives the rim the ability to better combat tire pressures pushing outward as braking forces create heat. More on braking in a minute.

mavic cosmic ultimate UST carbon rim cutaway

 

First, a little history to explain the rim’s design. The Cosmic Ultimate started using their hard foam internal in 2006 when they introduced the full carbon rim/spoke/hub design. That model used more of a “V” shape that let the spokes lay parallel with the rim wall. In 2015, they moved to a rounded profile for two reasons. First, because that’s the current best design in terms of overall aero performance. Second, because they wanted to reduce hard, sharp corners, which are not a great design for carbon fiber. Carbon likes smooth, round transitions, not sharp angles, so this created a stronger, better rim. The challenge then became running full carbon spokes straight into rounded rims.

mavic cosmic ultimate UST carbon rim cutaway

 

To do this, they started notching the foam mold to make room for the spoke’s “head”, which is an over-wrapped piece of foam that slots into the notches. This wrapped section contains its own small piece of foam, which provides the structure and shape so that when it’s all heated in the mold and pressed together, it creates the desired rim profile and creates a one-piece rim/spoke combo.

mavic cosmic ultimate UST carbon rim cutaway
This image also shows the difference between the symmetrical front rim (left) and asymmetrical rear rim (right, as a tubular, but the new clinchers use the same offset).

Those wheels were only offered in tubulars, which are easier to mold. So the next challenge was to create not just a clincher, but a UST tubeless-ready clincher. Mavic says tubeless tires put more pressure on a rim, which actually impacts the spoke tension by compressing the rim radially. With a tubular, the pressure is self contained and has minimal impact on spoke tension. With a tube, that force is amplified because the tube is pressing against the rim bed. With tubeless, it’s even more. Enough that it requires 10% more spoke tension on their tubeless wheels to end up with the same overall tension with a tire installed and inflated. This keeps the wheels laterally stiff enough, but won’t impact rider comfort even if you have to put a tube in it.

Braking performance, spokes & tech specs

 

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

The rims measure 40mm deep, 26mm wide, and 19mm internal. They’re designed around a 25mm tire, and will come with the 700×25 Yksion Pro UST tires and Mavic’s own sealant (made for them by Joe’s No Flats). The spokes are 100% UD carbon fiber and weigh 35% less than comparable steel spokes, but have no elongation so create a laterally and torsionally stiffer wheel. But, like any spoke of any material, they can flex when de-tensioned (like when you hit a bump and compress the wheel slightly), so these won’t feel any more or less harsh than any other quality wheel. In fact, we had quite an interesting conversation with Mavic about spoke tension that we’ll turn into a full tech article soon.

The front rim is symmetrical, but the rear gets an asymmetric design to better balance spoke tension.

The rims use their laser etched braking surface for maximum friction. This was also introduced on the Cosmic Pro Carbon wheels, using a laser to remove the resin from the outer layer of carbon. The result is a rougher surface that creates more friction for better braking performance, wet or dry. That process hasn’t changed, but they did develop new, softer brake pads… and they’re not yellow!

We’re all for branding, but Mavic’s original yellow pads for their carbon rims created a LOT of yellow dust. Seriously, check out these photos from our test rides at that launch. They worked really well, but there was room for improvement beyond just aesthetics. The new compound is softer, so it grabs better and is less likely to damage the rim. Technically, you can still run the yellow pads on these, and they won’t actually damage the rim, but because the fibers are exposed and they will heat up, you might be able to see the woven pattern get a little misshapen over time. That’s normal, according to Mavic. But the new pads will do that less, and they’re replacing the yellow pads altogether. That said, they strongly recommend (and require it to maintain your warranty) you use their pads because harder pads (even the excellent SwissStop Black Prince) can damage the rims.

And you’ll want to keep that warranty valid because they offer a crash replacement program. They can even true them slightly on the off chance you manage to bend something that, technically, shouldn’t bend.

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

 

 

The pads are made for them by SwissStop, and Mavic says their dry weather performance is a little better than the yellow ones. But the wet weather performance is drastically improved. We tested that in person at the launch, stay tuned for first impressions in a separate story.

Aerodynamic performance

wind tunnel test results and competitive comparison for 2018 mavic cosmic ultimate UST road bike wheels

Mavic tested these wheels against other popular options with similar depths, using 25mm tires on all of them. The chart above shows the results, with a weighted average drag measurement on the left. By “weighted” they explained that each yaw value was weighted based on the amount of time you’re likely to spend riding in those crosswinds. So, the 20º crosswind drag figure has less impact on the average then 5º. Basically, they took a ton of real world riding data to determine what the most common wind conditions are and tried to come up with a number that made real world sense. Aerodynamics are on par with things like the Zipp 303, Aeolus 3, ENVE SES 4.5′ all measured with 25mm tires installed. Some had lower drags at different angles, but in the sweet spots, these compare very favorably. But, if they don’t have the best numbers overall, why share this data? Because these are lighter, have the benefit of UST standardization, and probably won’t come out of true.

It’s not all about the rim shape. The spokes have an elliptical shape for better aerodynamics, too. and the new hubs are smaller to be more aero.

New full carbon hubs

 

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

The rear hub is now full carbon, their first update to the Cosmic Carbone Ultimate Tubular rear hub, which launched in 2006. That, along with the ability to run full length, full carbon spokes on both sides of the wheels, saves about 70g in that area. All in, the tubular comes in at 1,250g currently, but by the time they apply all this new design tech those should be around 1,180g (target weight).

The QRM Auto preload system uses a simple wave washer to automatically provide the right amount of preload on the bearings. For these wheels, it’s only on the rear, using their QRM+ manual adjustable preload on the front. Some of their other front wheels do use the new Auto system, though. Compared to a standard preload adjustment, this saves weight and has enough “spring” in it to take up any play that could develop in the bearings’ useable life.

 

There’s also a new freehub body that has additional machining inside and out, thinner splines and smaller, lighter bearings.

Internally, the ratchet-ring driven ID360 mechanism was introduced in 2015 with their All Road wheels and is now on most of their the carbon wheels and the Ksyrium Pro UST…and all of their disc brake wheels, including the entry level Aksium, because it’s thru-axle compatible.

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

 

During construction, the spokes are molded into the rims. Each spoke is pre-made and shaped, then molded into the rim during to create one piece. From there, the hub shells are inserted, the spokes are positioned over the flanges and glued into place.

 

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim

Then, an outer flange cover is placed on it and they’re put back into a heated, pressurized mold to finish them. The end result ins a one-piece, full carbon wheel save for the bearings, axles and freehub system.

What about disc brakes?

The goal here was to provide the simplicity of tubeless on their absolute best technology. There is a plan for disc brake versions. And they admit that’s where everything is headed. Creating a rim brake version of this wheel was actually harder to make, but they wanted their pro racers to have it (and their racers wanted it). Since at this very highest end of their range, the volume is low, there was enough of a business case to move forward with what the racers wanted first. Fortunately for the rest of us, the hard work is done, and they’ll be ready with a disc version soon enough.

UST tires come with them

 

All-new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST is their lightest ever full carbon fiber clincher wheelset for road bikes and now comes with a UST tubeless ready rim and Yksion Pro UST road bike tires

And this is actually a big part of the story. Not that you get tires with them, but that the wheel-tire system is designed around the Road UST standard. If you’ve been following along on the “Road Tubeless” story, there’s actually very little standardization or agreement between wheel and tire manufacturers. Mavic led the development of a UST standard for mountain bikes back in the day, and they’ve done it again for road. This means, should you find “UST” on any road tires or rims, that you know they adhere to a specific set of measurements for interior rim shapes, heights and dimensions. For tires, it means their bead shape is designed to fit that rim shape securely. We’ll be posting a much more in depth story on Road UST soon, but the fact that these are “UST” is a step in the right direction for standardizing Road Tubeless.

Mavic’s had their Yksion Pro UST tires in the line for a while. Because they’re UST, the fit is snug and purposefully matched to the rims. They say it takes just 30g of sealant to protect against punctures and leaks. The tires are made for them by Hutchinson, but are their own design and compound to bring rolling resistance to a minimum. Weight is 260g each for the 700×25.

A new My Mavic app will have personalized tire pressure recommendations based on how you ride, your weight and the bike weight, weather conditions, and tire and rim size. They say it may give you a lower than expected tire pressure, but that most people come away happy with the recommendation.

The new Mavic Cosmic Ultimate UST will be sold as a wheel/tire system. Retail price is $4,250 (€3,500), available in a few months in January 2019. Stay tuned for first impressions and other new rider gear from Mavic.

Mavic.com

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blahblahblah
blahblahblah
6 years ago

if your going to comment, not wide enough, to heavy, to expensive, not aero enough, dont like yellow, dont like black,cant adjust the spokes,to little to late, dont like mavic, dont like anything…, well just say nothing thanks in advance

jxjjd
jxjjd
6 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

not enough yellow

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

Not expensive enough

JBikes
JBikes
6 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

don’t like blue or green

comrad
6 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

If*

you’re*

*too

*too

don’t*

can’t*

too* too*

anything;* Well

Jeeeeeeeeez

thesteve4761
6 years ago
Reply to  comrad

Campy seatpost.

Love Mavic
Love Mavic
6 years ago
Reply to  blahblahblah

To much, to early…

seb3456
seb3456
6 years ago

Look like very nice, waiting for a test ride feedback

VeloFreak
VeloFreak
6 years ago

The LightWeight wheels everyone was bashing here, it’s the original design of these. Original’s always being better, those weight almost 300g less than these… 300g, in a road wheelset.

Don’t buy fake products. Buy originals.

ave
ave
6 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

yeah, lw is so similar in rim shape, how could i forget about them.

MICHAEL C WAGNER
MICHAEL C WAGNER
6 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

These are half the price of lightweight and have a much better aero profile and crash warranty replacement for 3 years. I would hardly call them a fake.

Jordi M.
Jordi M.
6 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

Where on earth have you seen that those wheels weight 300 more? Mavic announces 1310g when the lightweight 24C are announced close to 1400 and are narrower, les aero, nowhere near in terms of breaking and latest stiffness test weren’t always as good as people think…

Mavic seems to have done a really sweet job

Jordi M.
Jordi M.
6 years ago
Reply to  Jordi M.

Edit: LW-24C stiffness remain high, just reviewed some lab-data

Cra
Cra
6 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

Didn’t know Lightweight’s were tubeless ready and had a modern aero rim profile.

JBikes
JBikes
6 years ago
Reply to  VeloFreak

So you only use the “original” of anything? Your bikes must be pretty interesting.

Ricky Bobby
Ricky Bobby
6 years ago

That freehub body looks like it would be grooved immediately by the cogs. Mavic freehubs have always grooved terribly, I feel like this is one place they could have added some mass. And UST is a standard used by… Mavic. Thanks, but no thanks. I’ve been using road tubeless for a long time, and have never experienced any issues, even using non-tubelss tires. I’d rather not be forced to use a mavic tire just to match their unsupported standard.

Jordi M.
Jordi M.
6 years ago
Reply to  Ricky Bobby

Ricky, if you look today’s tubeless offer you have suuuuch a wide range of dimensions that we use things that are not supposed to work together. Some combinations works without any problem, some have issues to install the tire, other to inflate… can it works yes… was it time to put real engineering behind it, I think cause wheel brand did whatever they though was making sense so did tire brands… now, NOTHING stops you to use your non UST tires on Mavic wheels, you will be exposed to the same potential issues you are today.

Larry Falk
Larry Falk
6 years ago

I pray more manufactures adopt road UST (or any standard) because what we have right now (the Wild West…though better than bottom brackets) isn’t the best – You buy a new tubeless tire and you don’t know if it’s going to be your ‘enemy’ or not!

Dolan Halbrook
Dolan Halbrook
6 years ago

These look amazing if you have 4.2K to drop for race day wheels. I can’t imagine training on a wheelset with spokes permanently bonded to the hub.

Tom
Tom
6 years ago

had me up until they mentioned the price.

RCSpeed
RCSpeed
6 years ago

4 different tires on 4 different wheels is not a apples to apples comparison which makes that Aero data marketing junk.
I get they were trying to show the wheel-tire family brand comparisons but in the end this tells us very little on the actual aero performance of the wheels.

Greg
Greg
6 years ago
Reply to  RCSpeed

These are sold as a wheel tire system. Testing a Zipp wheel with a Zipp tire and the Bontrager wheel with a Bontrager tire is a reasonable approach. Ideally, you would also test all wheels with a control tire like the GP4K, known for being fast in the tunnel.

Patrick
Patrick
6 years ago

They look an awful lot like what mad fiber tried one time…

Shenandoah
Shenandoah
6 years ago
Reply to  Patrick

well they probably came out 8 years before the mad-fiber… 2006 for the Mavic

Bob
Bob
6 years ago

i would love to see a comparison between these, the LW and some of the manufacturer direct companies. Just make sure it is by a 3rd party.

Durianrider
6 years ago

Look great but its got a mavic freehub body and anyone who does a decent amount of miles knows how fast they wear out…

Cody Hallenbeck
Cody Hallenbeck
6 years ago
Reply to  Durianrider

I’m not really a fan of Mavic (I cursed Mavic out an hour ago when one of the aluminum nipples on a Zircal spoke crumbled apart with almost no force and the official spoke tool) but to be fair this is a entirely different freehub design than they have conventionally used, and is similar to a star ratchet design as far as I can tell from the diagram. This wheel is frankly on the silly side of things but road UST is a genuinely good idea and all the quirks of this wheel appear to be the result of genuine performance goals. If I had the cash I’d genuinely consider them. Reminds me of mad fiber a bit.

Fred Gravelly
Fred Gravelly
6 years ago

It boggles my mind that non-professional cyclists would even consider paying this much for wheels. It doesnt even say if they will work on gravel. Sheesh.

Crash Bandicoot
Crash Bandicoot
6 years ago
Reply to  Fred Gravelly

99% of these won’t even be entered in to a single race and that’s fine; high dollar rims aren’t for racing that’s where stuff breaks in crashes and gets scratched with travel. These are like a modern day Lamborghini (Audi) lots of show and go but practical enough for the rich guy on the club run.

wheels
wheels
6 years ago

I had 2015 CCU, i also have lighter wheels and i have higher profile aero wheels to.
CCU was stiffer and extremely snappy. Sold mine because i was into wider rim bead wheels (more stable, better comfort)
I would surely like to own the new CCU. Wider rim bead and new profile.
I think these wheels will make our bikes feel very nimble and acceleration will be boosted.
For sure on top of my wishlist….

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